Kean & Byrne: Feds' missteps can't stop N.J. from going forward

An Air Canada Airbus A319 aircraft lands. File Art of planes landing at Newark Liberty International Airport. David Gard/The Star-Ledger

The following exchange between former New Jersey Govs. Brendan T. Byrne and Tom Kean took place in a Thursday conference call.

Q: Is it a big problem that federal funding was still uncertain at the time Gov. Christie drew up his budget?

GOV. BYRNE: Federal funding is never certain. The nicest thing for a political person is to hear something is for real, but that’s a rare luxury. But I have no worry about whether Chris Christie is going to make it.

GOV. KEAN: You just can’t worry these days about the federal government. It’s a zoo down there and makes no sense. Can you believe we are not sending a carrier to the Gulf because there’s been a 2 percent cut in the budget? That’s the kind of stupidity you can’t worry about.

BYRNE: It will be interesting to see how we cope with this sequestration because, frankly, I think a lot of waste will be identified in this process.

KEAN: It’s so ridiculous now. Letting inmates out of prison and firing air traffic controllers because of a 2 percent cut? We have a governor spending less than five years ago and the federal government with more money than last year worried about doing essential things. This is a level of incompetence I’ve not seen before.

Q: Is Gov. Christie correct that the federal government should pay most of the Sandy rebuilding costs? And won’t some still fall on New Jersey residents through state and local tax increases?

BYRNE: This hurricane was the worst tragedy we’ve had in New Jersey in decades, maybe a century. Yes, some will fall on New Jersey. It’s a question of how much we can avoid at the municipal and state levels. The fed has the most flexibility in dealing with financial problems like this.

KEAN: The federal government already is paying most of it through congressional appropriation, as they should. The governor is putting in $40 million extra to hopefully close the gaps. There will be some state and local taxes, but who knows what they will be?

Q: With Atlantic City casino revenues down, the state will now let them try internet gambling. Is there a risk the whole legal-gambling plan could deflate so far that we could face another Atlantic City crisis?

BYRNE: Internet gambling is inevitable, and its time has come. I wonder what would have happened — if I had come out against gambling in New Jersey — if we’d have had the expansion we’ve seen. Gambling symbolized — and was viewed as corrupt in — Las Vegas. It might still be if we hadn’t started it in New Jersey.

KEAN: It’s a shell game, and Atlantic City is not going to be saved by internet gambling. Vegas has passed it, and Delaware is considering it, and so will every other state that wants gambling revenue. Now they want sports betting, but other states will, too. The only way to have an advantage in Atlantic City is to put something there that nobody has. We have to make it better or different than anywhere else, and I don’t see us doing that.

BYRNE: I made that argument to the Disney people 40 years ago, and they told me they could only count on three months (in a cold climate).

KEAN: I worry, still do, about the continued expansion of gambling. I just don’t think it’s good. It’s one thing to confine it to Atlantic City, but when you have it everywhere, it’s pervasive. Government rushes to it because it makes money, but I don’t think it’s good.

BYRNE: You were against it, but you took the money.

KEAN: I think every governor before and after you would have been against it.

BYRNE: No other governor would have permitted it. I did because I had a strong background in law enforcement, and I knew what we could enforce. And I had Clint Pagano heading the State Police.